Thursday!

Thursday is Thanksgiving Day! Seems like it was just June or something. Would that time could be stopped or suspended somehow. Oh. I take that back. I want Dec. 16 to come quickly. That's when L. C. will be back in the house. I am so ready.

I thought about making a nice post to remind whoever reads this to not forget to give thanks this year. So, don't forget!!

Seriously, though, I think gratitude is one of the best mood changers in the world. I learned this years ago when I lived in a tiny town in southwest Oklahoma where the scenery was very lacking, but the people were the salt of the earth. Well, different things were happening in my life back then, among them a very sick sister, two very young children, a husband who was pastoring a very wonderful church, but whose wife (me) was doing everything she thought a good pastor's wife should be doing. The word 'should' is the operative word here. People pleasing is one of my maladies. Well, being a people-pleasing pastor's wife with a sick sister and 2 very young children, and a church full of people to please is kind of a recipe for stress. Really.

I had made the members of our congregation my god. . . not God. And everyone was suffering for it. Long story short, the true God got a hold of me and told me 'Enough, mm jw!' So, long story short, I got on the right track. And long story short, I started saying 'thank you' for everything. I would walk from the church to our house (just across the parking lot) and say (pray) "thank you" with every step. I mean every step. It wasn't as if I had to stress about thinking what to thank God for. I would just say, "thank you" with every single step, and by doing that I would just think of things to be thankful for. Like, air, running water, healthy kids, wonderful in-laws, good financial situation, eyesight, good husband, etc., etc. I would also thank God for the trials. The start of an old song has always helped me in this regard, "Thank You for the trials if they would bring be close to You." That's all I know of that song. I don't even know the title. Oh well. I would say 'thank you' with each step. Man, without trying I would be smiling.

So I like 'thank you's'. Of course, I like to get them, but the therapy of giving them, especially to God, is INCREDIBLE.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.